India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report.
The report was released on Wednesday by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world. It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal.
In the report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, India ranks 77th on the Sustainability Index and 131 on the Flourishing Index, it said.
Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving. For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.
For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.
Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today's national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children's ability to flourish.
The Sustainability Index ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target. This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country's contribution to sustainability in future.
The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 39·7 giga tonnes to 22·8 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66 per cent chance of keeping global warming below 1·5°C.
It said that the world's survival depended on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future.
"No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future," said Anthony Costello, Professor of Global Health and Sustainability at University College London, one of the lead authors of the report.
"Especially, they're under immediate threat from climate change and from commercial marketing, which has grown hugely in the last decade," said Costello – former WHO Director of Mother, Child and Adolescent health.
Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates - followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.
However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.
Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters. The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.
According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly – within the top 70 – on child flourishing measures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.
"More than 2 billion people live in countries where development is hampered by humanitarian crises, conflicts, and natural disasters, problems increasingly linked with climate change," said Minister Awa Coll-Seck from Senegal, Co-Chair of the commission.
The report also highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.
Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250 per cent in the US over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.
Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the US – among many others – have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.
Children's exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity, it said.
The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 – an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.
To protect children, the authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children.
Specific recommendations include stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet; placing children and adolescents at the centre of global efforts to achieve sustainable development, the report said.
New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights; incorporating children's voices into policy decisions and tightening national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said.
Comments
what the hell man!!
modi fan ask your mother what has congress done so far, you would be born to british pig if congress not fought for our beloved country, you are the biggest traitor, am assamed of you.
may be you born to them god knows
Muslim rajya after 50 year & you will be minority...pack your bag now itself to nepal..
but we muslim always respect the minotity or majority irrespective of cast,.
hindu, muslim, crist all people are belong to one GOD.
they we leave peacefull life after india become muslim country. mark my word very soon
I appreciate mewani. only dalits grassroot leaders can understand pain of fellow caste men.... dalits should understand this , instead of following uppercaste ring leaders , should think their empowerment thru themselves or thru with the support of like minded parties and by aligning with the people those make you to suffer since centuries...
Young Mevani is a respectful Leader!
Dalits must stand in Solidarity with the oppressed people of India.
Who the hell are you Mevani ? What locus standi do you have in our State Karnataka. To hell with you and your Urban Naxalites. You can keep on ranting and spewing your venomic diatribes against the Nationalists. We people of Karnataka will only dismiss you with the contempt you deserve. We are ready to confront you on every possible forum. This fight between you and the patriots are not going to be restricted to electoral battles. We will fight you on principles and ideologies. You might have won your election with the tacit support of the Congress. You and your ilk will face your waterloo in Our Karnataka.
Just to encroach votes and to grab the power chair, these traitors are dividing people based on caste and religion. If they are so generous let them shell out from their pockets throughout the year to each family..why just during election time? When I am standing and breathing in this land we should respect this India. Don't bark like mad street dogs, rather go help people who are really suffering being poor. Don't bring your propaganda for political gain and power !!!! and I belong to lower caste but I am Indian first
you want Congress? are you brainless? What has Cong done since independence? why the country is still like this? only an idiot would help Cong come back in the center. Rahul is a joke..
Kannadigas, Wake up and Be aware! Very shortly you are likely to be overrun by a pretender called Mewani that only talks about dalit cause, but himself hobnobs with the New Delhi/ Congress elites. He did not even visit the families of the dalits who were recently murdered in UP and Haryana, and also not reported by English media because "it did not fit their narrative". Several Hindi media covered the news story and also pointed out this hypocrisy of Mewani and others.
Another idiot who is portraying his unashamed personal ambition as a Dalit grouse! Another Kachadawal in the making. The original will bite the dust next time around; the new one will as well.
He said the same in Gujarat.. now in karantaka. No use actually. final result will be favour to BJP
I dont think so, Mr. Mevani can make big difference..! He is against BJP. BJP people are strong enough. May be BJP may give feeling of losing. But they are working hard behind.. They will do all the gimmicks. Through that they will "snatch" dalits and minority votes too
Whatever happen, there are still hardcore BJP fans.. They will do anything for BJP.. brainless people
BJP cant snatch not a single vote from dalits (if they have brain)
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